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Earlier this month, a new interagency report was delivered to Congress that warns of the growing threat of low oxygen "dead zones" in coastal waters around the U.S. This condition is known as hypoxia — where oxygen levels drop so low that creatures in the water are stressed or killed. In this episode, we hear from two of the scientists behind the report: Dr. Libby Jewett from NOAA and Herb Buxton from the US Geological Survey. They help us learn more about the extent of this problem, its causes, and how this trend might be reversed.

A 2009 NOAA report finds that man-made toxic chemicals used as flame retardants in consumer products are found in all U.S. coastal waters and the Great Lakes. The chemicals—Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers, or PBDEs—have generated international concern in recent years due to their global distribution and associated adverse environmental and human health effects. We talk with one of the authors of the report. [This is a rebroadcast of an episode that originally aired on April 1, 2009]